Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/559

 of many engagements, we also found time to visit libraries and collections of a scientific description; some public buildings, the courts of law, and the theatres: and I now discovered how warm an interest my friend took in all public matters; and that, amongst his other reading, he had become very intimate with the masters of the English drama. The mention of these particulars may require some apology; but, in, my recollections, they are preserved, as illustrative of a mind which was not only never idle, but never ill employed. To pass a day with Dr. Darwall, was to discover how much might be done in a day; what active duties gone through; what objects of interest attended to; and what subjects of animating and improving discourse suggested, in communion with an elevated and energetic intellect. It happened that, on our return, we travelled alone; and it, when recurring to the reminiscences of our discourse in that pleasant journey, I feel a pleasure in reflecting that, of the many worthy designs he contemplated, some he lived to accomplish; this pleasure is saddened by the reflection that, in less than ten years, all his manly aspirations were hushed in the repose of the levelling grave.

He was, at the period of which I am now speaking, and he remained as long as he lived, one of the few persons, engaged in the active affairs of the world, with whom his friends might, at any time, communicate on the highest or most serious subjects. He never met such subjects with indifference, or turned from them with levity. The charm of this consistency can be best estimated by those who have seen, with regret, in numerous instances, the gradual